Dark light shining on $B\to K^{(*)} E_{\rm miss}$

Abstract

Recent Belle II data on $B^+ \to K^+ E_{\rm miss}$ show an excess consistent with a two-body decay involving a light invisible particle with mass around $2.1\,\mathrm{GeV}$. We present a UV-complete explanation based on a Higgsed $U(1)'$ gauge symmetry with a light vector boson $Z'$ and a vector-like top partner, which naturally enhances $b \to s$ transitions. While the minimal model can reproduce the required $B \to K^{(*)} Z'$ rate, it is excluded by LHCb searches for resonant dimuon decays due to unavoidable loop-induced couplings of $Z'$ to charged leptons. We show that a minimal extension with an additional light $U(1)'$-charged singlet fermion allows $Z'$ to decay dominantly invisibly, evades existing constraints coming also from dark photon and collider searches as well as Higgs measurements, and can simultaneously account for the Belle II excess and the observed dark matter abundance through resonant thermal freeze-out.